The Unprecedented Nature of Israel’s Strikes on Iran
13 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Atomic bomb, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
How New Zealand invented inflation targeting
13 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in business cycles, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
…the very next day, [Roger] Douglas appeared on TV declaring his intention to reduce inflation to ‘around 0 or 0 to 1 percent’ over the next couple of years, and then went on to make several similar comments in the following days. Douglas would soften his stance on specific timelines but ask the Reserve Bank and […]
How New Zealand invented inflation targeting
What happened when Spain brought back the wealth tax?
13 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Spain, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and savings
From the Journal of Public Economics Twitter feed: What happened when Spain brought back the Wealth Tax in 2011? Using variation in exposure, this paper finds: – No drop in savings, but drop in taxable wealth—mainly via legal avoidance – Asset shifting caused most revenue loss – Estimated revenue loss was 2.75x initial 2011 rev. […]
What happened when Spain brought back the wealth tax?
War vs Genocide
13 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace
War and genocide differ fundamentally in intent, target, and the methods used. Here are the main distinctions: 1. Definition and Intent 2. Targets 3. Scale and Methods 4. Legal Classification 5. International Response 6. Historical Examples Thus, while wars can be tragic and devastating, genocide specifically targets a group’s existence and identity, constituting one of the gravest crimes in international law. […]
War vs Genocide
Japan facts of the day
12 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, Japan, population bust
Japan must stop being overly optimistic about how quickly its population is going to shrink, economists have warned, as births plunge at a pace far ahead of core estimates. Japan this month said there were a total of 686,000 Japanese births in 2024, falling below 700,000 for the first time since records began in the […]
Japan facts of the day
Germany’s Renewable Energy Overcapacity Is Pushing The Power Grid To The Limit
12 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: Germany, solar power, wind power
By Frank Bosse at Klimanachrichten (Translated, edited by P. Gosselin) “Too much electricity is also a danger.” With that headline, Germany’s “n-tv” surprised its readers on Pentecost Sunday. Attentive readers of “Klimanachrichten” already knew this beforehand: The past holiday weekend was a stress test for our electricity grid: The sun is very high, provides a…
Germany’s Renewable Energy Overcapacity Is Pushing The Power Grid To The Limit
Map of German Territorial Losses 1919-1945
12 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, World War I, World War II
The Orr story (well, part of it anyway)
11 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
Months after various OIAs had been lodged on the question of Adrian Orr’s sudden departure on 5 March, we finally got a partial dump of documents this morning. (Sufficiently mishandled that at 10:04 this morning they’d send an email to OIA requesters saying they’d email out the response at 10:45 and then have it on […]
The Orr story (well, part of it anyway)
BBC News prioritises ‘aid yacht’ propaganda over factual information
11 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
Visitors to the BBC News website on the morning of June 9th found no fewer than three items relating to the topic of the UK flagged one-boat agitprop which had set off from Italy nine days earlier. Two reports appeared in the ‘updates’ section, both of which originally described the vessel using the word “aid”. […]
BBC News prioritises ‘aid yacht’ propaganda over factual information
Will the Haredi parties really force an election?
11 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
Unless it gets pulled from the agenda, the Knesset (parliament of Israel) may begin the voting process as soon as 11 June on a measure that would set an early election. This effectively could force an early end to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties. The two Haredi parties, United Torah […]
Will the Haredi parties really force an election?
Monetary Policy and the Great Crash of 1929: A Bursting Bubble or Collapsing Fundamentals?
11 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic history, great depression, macroeconomics, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
By Timothy Cogley. He was then at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (1999). He is now at New York University. “In recent years, a number of economists have expressed concern that the stock market is overvalued. Some have compared the situation with the 1920s, warning that the market may be headed for a…
Monetary Policy and the Great Crash of 1929: A Bursting Bubble or Collapsing Fundamentals?
BBC News framing of Israeli strikes on Hizballah assets in Beirut
11 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Middle-East politics, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
On the eve of the 2025 Pessach holiday a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip, triggering alarms in towns in southern Israel. The following afternoon – the first day of that holiday – a missile was launched from Yemen, triggering sirens in central Israel and that was followed by another rocket attack from the […]
BBC News framing of Israeli strikes on Hizballah assets in Beirut
Always Ready, Always There: Democrats Mobilize Against the National Guard Deployment
10 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law, economics of immigration, law and order
Below is my column in Fox.com on the deployment of National Guard in Los Angeles. Another round of court challenges are unfolding, but the escalation is likely to continue on both sides. While the Guard’s motto is “Always Ready, Always There!,” California Democrats do not want them between rioters and federal law enforcement. Here is […]
Always Ready, Always There: Democrats Mobilize Against the National Guard Deployment
The Maori Party thumbs its nose at democracy
10 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination
Michael Bassett writes – Have you noticed how contemptuous the Maori Party’s MPs are of democracy? After all, people who self-designate themselves as Maori are only 17% of the population. And amongst them, only a small proportion vote for the Maori Party. The brutal reality is that much higher numbers of Maori support Labour, while […]
The Maori Party thumbs its nose at democracy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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